need opinions on my laminate wood flooring (1 Viewer)

[Philip_G]

it's home upgrade week here at the HTF it seems...

Anyway, this is the house I'm trying to build
www.whereyou.at/philip/floorplan.jpg

since the builder wants a small fortune to do it, I plan to replace the vinyl flooring with a lamiate wood-look in a light maple, to match the darker maple cabinets and replace the 29 cent vinyl the builder uses, there's vinyl in the entry and the kitchen, but I'm considing doing the whole red shaded area in laminate, so you walk in and it's wood all the way through to the kitchen, but the family room and hallway would be left carpet.

What do you think? Will this look strange?

My thoughts are that this eliminates any areas where the laminate baseboard would butt up against the 3" white wood baseboard and look strange, and it also makes it easy to do the whole livingroom later if I want to "add on"

 

[Dave Poehlman]

I have maple-looking laminate throughout my kitchen, hallway, and diningroom.... pretty much 2/3rds of our main floor. And I like the look of it.

The only things I don't like about it is the builder got the stuff that doesn't really have any texture to it... so it is slippery in socks... especially when it's brand new! You can buy stuff with more of a wood texture to it. Also, it can kind of have a "plasticky" sound to it when you walk on it... this probably doesn't apply to you since you're on a slab. But, you might want to look at your padding choices underneath.
One great thing about these floors is they're easy to install and remove... and reinstall if necessary.

I'm not sure what you mean. Are you planning wood baseboards for the laminate and white for the carpet? Couldn't you just use white baseboards throughout the house?

 

[Craig S]

My parents put laminate in their kitchen when they built their new home 5 years ago. When they told me about it, I just thought "weird", but seeing is believing. I really like it. It's going in my next house.

Go for it!!

 

[Greg_R]

I will never put wood down as my kitchen floor EVER AGAIN. This is an extremely high traffic area and a lot of food and liquid get ground into the surface (even when we try to keep things clean). I've had bowls and other heavy objects hit the floor (causing dents). I would go with tile (make sure it isn't slippery when wet) or cork (which won't dent).

 

[Philip_G]

Well, the laminate flooring is about 1/4" higher than the vinyl, so you'd have to rip a little off the bottom to make it look normal, but I was planning to go with te wood trim they sell to match the flooring.

 

[Justin Lane]

Philip,

Have you thought about installing real hardwood floors? The price is not that much more expensive than laminate, and will provide a larger return on investment if you decide to sell your home. Plus having experienced both, I just perfer the feel and sound of walking on real hardwood.

You are proabably looking at anywhere from $6-8 a sq. ft. installed for hardwood. Laminate flooring will run you about $4-5 a sq. ft. installed. Your area looks small enough that the price difference between the two will not be significantly different.

J

 

[Philip_T]

While putting laminate flooring from the foyer to the dining room would be functionally appealing as its a high traffic area, I tend to think that it may make the living room appear smaller than it is. I would do the foyer, dining room and kitchen in wood, but leave the living room carpeted wall to wall. Just my opinion though.

 

[Philip_G]

concrete slab as mentioned above.
Could use a real wood laminate but with 2 dogs synthetic is the way to go I think.

 

[Justin Lane]

I actually saw a system on "Home Again" where you can place real hardwood on concrete slab. It was a floating system with a moisture barrier and foam pad. Having never used this system or known anyone who has, I couldn't give you any opinions or idea of the price.

With a couple dogs, laminate (or tile) is probably your best bet.

J

 

[Philip_G]

Yeah, I've seen that stuff, it's a laminate product with about 1/8" of real wood on the top.
Maybe it looks a little better, but I don't see any other benefits to it, it'll walk just like a laminate floor.


You know, I hadn't thought about cork, I need to check into that, I've heard it's really attractive and indestructable.

 

[Eric_L]

I had considered laminate but my builder discourtaged me. First, not all laminate is water resistant - the resisttant type is much more expensive. It also sounds like laminate, even on concrete. Reminds me of the clop-clop of horse hooves.

My builder found hardwood flooring made of bamboo that is very affordable, water resistant, hard and natural sounding. We got it for less than the water-resistant laminate would have cost and have been very happy with it. It is in our entire upstairs - livingroom, kitchen, bathrooms, stairwell and master bed.

BTW - I hope you have lots of sound absorbing material to decorate with...